Snippets of life from our Northern Perch

Kia is all done her extra-curricular activities for the school year. She had her big Show Biz Kids performance last Friday to rave reviews and it looks like there will be an ongoing opportunity for a junior high aged class in the Fall - Yay!We are thrilled that the spring has really and truly arrived. Not a bit of snow remains to mock me, and here I thought our front yard iceberg would be in place until May long weekend. So very happy to be wrong on that call!The best $7.99 I've spent this year was on this bouquet of Lilies. I adore Lilies, they were the flowers in my wedding bouquet and every time I smell the scent wafting through my house I have wonderful memories to reflect on. Plus these flowers lasted 3 weeks!!!For all my art journal friends, here are a few of the latest layouts...I purchased some acrylic ink and had to play with the product. Really vibrant color and gotta love the dripage!Christy Tomlinson inspired pages via her she art series. I must admit I love drawing faces and coloring faces, so its so not my thing, but fun to try.Ah, back to my happy place.So this is the idea that crossed my mind yesterday and kept me busy for the next 5 hours. I thought it would be fun to make little posh mothers day badges for all the Momma primary teachers. They have little pins on the back, which was a sweet find at Michaels, they peel and stick and come in a pack of 24 ($4.99) which was perfect. I'm thinking I might do some sort of special delivery to the classroom as well, just wanting them to feel loved and appreciated for what they do. I really love how these turned out and God Bless Tim Holtz Paper Rosette die cutter I used at the local scrap store - for free!Roopy and all his smiley cuteness. This one really makes me laugh for some reason, probably because he really looks as though he's grinning.Happy Friday! And to totally toot my own horn, I'm on my second load of laundry already.

In closing some art reviews...so if you're not an arty - you might want to sign off here:

I'm a fan of Ranger Industries but recently I've had two of their products disappoint within a years time.

Over half of my Claudine Helmuth Studio Paint has dried up. I purchased a dozen colors and 7 of the 12 have dried up in less than a years time. The lids were tight and they were also stored in a lidded box. Not terribly pleased about that. I added Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid to try to restore some usable texture but they remain ubber lumpy now. Yick.

The other issue has been my Ranger Heat It gun. At around 7 months of having it, it began surging heat and then going almost producing nothing, only to repeat. I stopped using it (worried something serious might happen with continued use) and went back to my purple heat gun. I would be disappointed with a 7 month life-span of any item I bought to stand up to moderate use. I really love Ranger products, so I'm so surprised to have these results with these two items. Just thought I'd give a heads up and perhaps see if anyone else has had similar problems.

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